Monday, 14 January 2013

Auntie Miriam Answers Your Questions

Well, what a week we had last week! I can now confirm that Sepia Saturday 159 was our most popular Sepia Saturday yet, and it was a great pleasure to be able to say hello to so many new Sepians. Can I also thank Peter for the suggestion that the second Sepia Saturday in January should henceforth be known as Auntie Miriam Saturday; it is a suggestion I have now incorporated into the Sepia Saturday Rulebook. As Old Sepians will know, that will make a grand total of two rules - the first one was "There shall be no rules". One of the potential drawbacks of such an anarchic community is that new members might want some guidance on how Sepia Saturday works, and for this reason I have asked Auntie Miriam to try her hand at answering some of the more common questions we frequently get asked:

How can I become a member of Sepia Saturday? You don't need to ask, you don't need to apply. Just post an old photograph and add a few words of explanation. Once you have your post up, add a link to that specific post to the weekly Linky List on the Sepia Sarturday Blog.

What is "old" and do the photographs have to be in sepia? "Old" is what you want it to be. For someone who is still young, "old" might be just 20 years ago, whereas for me, "old" is when I could still do a decent waltz with my husband Frank. And sepia is merely an adjective rather than a precise definition - sepia, black, white, stunning Technicolour, the choice is yours.

Do they have to be family photographs? Certainly not. They can be family photographs, other old photographs you may have, or archive photographs you have seen on-line and want to share.

When should I post my posts? Sepia Saturday is a weekly meme, with the focus, as the name suggests, on a Saturday. However, Saturdays are not always convenient times for people to post and therefore all we say is that the weekly posts should be "on or around" the Saturday in question. You might want to bare in mind, that if your posts are late, you might not get as many visitors.

How can we protect against Sepia Spammers? Some people still use the Word Verification system that is available on Blogger, but most of us have abandoned this as Bloggers' residual spam filters have improved considerably over the years. We will try and spot silly spam posts to the Sepia Saturday Blog and get rid of them, but sometimes my poor nephew Alan is a little slow off the mark on a Saturday morning after a Friday night in the pub.

How can I get my blog added to the list of Sepia Saturday Participants that appears on the side-bar of the Sepia Saturday Blog? Just send a message to Alan and as soon as his hang-over has cleared he will add a link for you.

Who chooses the archive theme images? It's that Alan again. He normally picks an old image from a site like Flickr Commons, as these tend to be free of any copyright issues. The whole idea is that the theme is not a specific subject, but an image open to all sorts of different interpretations. I know Alan would welcome suggestions for theme images that can be used in the future, if you have any ideas, just let him know.

Do I have to follow the theme? No, you can go off-theme whenever you want. As it says on the tin, all we ask for is an old image and some new reflections.

What should I do about commenting on other posts? There is no easy answer to this question. As experienced bloggers will know, commenting has always been a bit of an "elephant in the room" as far as the blogging community is concerned. Back in the days when Sepia Saturday was young and there were only ten or twelve participants, it was easy to get around to everyones' blogs and add a comment. Such an approach is not so easy when there are 50 participants. Some people will always try to visit and comment on the blogs of people who visit and comment on their posts. Some will try and spread their visits over a number of weeks so that they get around everybody over a period of time. Most bloggers welcome the fact that people visit their blogs and take the trouble to leave a comment, even if it is just a brief few words, the equivalent to the "Like" button on Facebook. The important thing to remember is that there are no hard and fast rules. All bloggers have lives outside their blogs and will, at time, find it difficult to regularly visit all the blogs they follow.

How else can I participate in Sepia Saturday activities? We have a wonderfully active and very friendly Facebook Group. If you are on Facebook you are more than welcome to participate and join in the discussions of all things Sepia. Kat Mortensen looks after the Group so if you want more information just get in touch with her.

When will the Sepia Saturday T Shirt be available? Soon.

That is enough from Auntie Miriam, I will put her back in the cupboard now until next January. The weekly Sepia Saturday call will be up at midnight tonight.

23 comments:

Thank you Aunty Miriam. As one of Alan's stand-in-admins, I too attempt to head of spammers at the pass if I spot them.

As far as word verification is concerned, I wonder if regulars with more than blog who think they have done the decent thing by removing it, could also check their other blogs. As I'm not the owner of this wonderful meme I will be more forthright than Alan and say that it really is a nuisance, especially when trying to comment using an iPad, I had to have 3 or 4 attempts at some this morning (but I stuck at it) and I can see why some people give up making comments.

Also, can I say 'hear hear' for the Facebook plug. It's a supportive and fun community and we have some great dialogues and threads going. And by the way, even people who don't post on Sepia Saturday itself can join the group and comment. Come and join us!

Thank you for mentioning humble me and accepting the name suggestion for the second Saturday in January.I feel truly honored!Please continue to provide Alan (and his two stand ins) with all the imaginary powers that you no doubt still possess..

Auntie Miriam tells all! I was surprised to hear that all bloggers have lives outside their blogs! What could they possibly be doing with their time? Looking forward to wearing the T-shirt when the 100 post record is set.

thanks so much for the posting but now I worry that I've broken one of the non-rules. I used your amazing photo as a prompt for my poetry. is that ok? I'd love to continue doing that. I wish I could provide old photos of my own but I don't have any, I'm too young to have the family archives in my trusty yet.

Aunt Miriam, I didn't not realize that you nephew was such a boozer! LOL. He still maintains his responsibilities well though, and what would we ever do with out him? Now I know where he gets his sense of humor.

Thanks so much for explaining all of the ins-and-outs of SS. I will be needing at least 5 of those tee shirts ... one for my husband who waits patiently for me to finish my visits on Saturday morning, one each for my Mom and two Aunties, the stars of many of my posts, and one for me.

Like Sharon from Strong Foundations I too have nominated you for the "One Lovely Blog Award". Please just bask in the glory as I know how busy you are and the thought of participating will probably make you want to scream. I just wanted to acknowledge all the hard work you do to bring the blogging community together.

Sepia Saturday

Launched by Alan Burnett and Kat Mortensen in 2009, Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind (they don't have to be sepia) become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, all we ask is that your sign up to the weekly Linky List, that you try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and that you have fun.